Turner Targeting Single-Car Rolex 24 Effort

Photo: John Dagys

Will Turner is optimistic of his team being on the grid for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, despite not currently having a confirmed lineup for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.

The longtime BMW squad is taking part in this weekend’s Roar Before the 24 with a single BMW M6 GT3 for factory driver Jens Klingmann, to fulfill IMSA’s participation requirement in the now-mandatory pre-season test.

“If you don’t do the Roar, there’s no way you can do the race,” Turner told Sportscar365. “I’m working on some stuff, it’s going to be last minute, obviously. But the team isn’t last-minute so we’re ready to go.

“We’re here and hopefully I can get something going and we can improve on our fifth place finishing position here [from last year].”

Turner ran a pair of M6 GT3s in the full championship last year for Klingmann, Bret Curtis, Markus Palttala and Michael Marsal, but has been left searching for new customers following Curtis and Marsal’s decisions not to continue in the GT Daytona class.

The Massachusetts-based squad is again the only BMW customer team in GTD, leaving them to fulfill the manufacturer’s BoP requirements.

“We’re also here to give IMSA the data they need to make the BoP calls,” Turner said. “That’s what we’re most concerned about as there’s a lot of new cars.

“Even if it wasn’t mandatory, if we didn’t show up, they wouldn’t know what to do with us.

“We know what our BoP is; it’s the same as it ended last year. We’ll just go out and run for the data, give them what they need and hopefully I can put a program together after that.”

Turner said he hopes to finalize their Daytona lineup by the end of next week, which would be a single-car entry, with the target of turning it into a full-season program.

He’s all but ruled out fielding the M6 GT3 cars in Pirelli World Challenge this year but will have a multi-car presence in the PWC TC class with the new BMW M235R.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John